Sunday, July 16, 2017

Change, my dear. And it seems not a moment too soon...

Announcing the 13th Doctor - Jodie Whittaker

It was only to be expected - an albeit brief post about Doctor Who. Today, they revealed the new face of the Doctor, the 13th (or is it 15th?) incarnation, in the form of Jodie Whittaker. All I can say is - AWESOME!

I haven't been this excited about the future of Doctor Who since I was sat in the BBC offices with Dominic McDowall-Thomas (head of Cubicle 7) and we were given the scripts for Series 5 (Matt Smith's first series) to read in preparation of the new edition of the RPG, Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space (as it was then - now it's just Doctor Who The Roleplaying Game). We weren't allowed to take the scripts out of the room, but we were allowed to make notes, and I remember reading "TheEleventh Hour" thinking "This is going to be brilliant".

I remember we knew we weren't going to get through all the scripts in one day, so we split the pile randomly. I still have my notes somewhere. I remember one particular line, I was so disappointed they cut from the episode "The Beast Below" where Amy asks the Doctor what it must be like in his head. His reply was simply - "A rollercoaster of geniuses, all going Wheeeeee!!!" (or something like that - I have it written down somewhere in that notebook).

I loved Matt Smith as the Doctor, and while I thought the stories weren't as strong as his tenure gave way to Peter Capaldi, this last series (series 10, or season 36 if you're being like that) has been bloomin' brilliant. Bill (Pearl Mackie) has been a great companion, and even Nardole (Matt Lucas) has surprised me with how good he's been.

That said, Doctor Who is all about change, and the brilliant casting of Jodie Whittaker (who was great in Broadchurch, and that really haunting episode of Black Mirror - "The Entire History of You") is certainly a great change in its fifty-plus years.

I'm really excited to see what they do with her Doctor - new TARDIS? What will the companions be like? Chris Chibnall has stated it's going to be a new approach, and I'm very intrigued!

WHO IS AUTOCRATIK?

David F. Chapman - writer, game designer, editor, publisher and all-round control freak. Probably best known as game designer on the award winning Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space roleplaying game for Cubicle 7 Entertainment and creator of the Vortex system that powers it, and as line developer on Conspiracy X 2.0 for Eden Studios, and as creator of #RPGaDAY.